What do the following local authorities have in common?
Clue 1 : North Ayrshire have 2!
Clue 2 : Perth and Kinross have it on ERIC the Intranet
Follow the links and answers in the comment section please!
I had some great experiences at Scottish Learning Festival this year. Some highlights for me were:
You can find out more on the excellent Connected Live blog
I am now on the lookout for the CPD opportunities that emanate from SLF (eg online versions of the presentations) for posting in CPDFind. I know many of our blog readers were also there, so please leave a comment on what did it for you this year (or not). It will help us identify the best CPD providers for CPDFind!
Thanks to everyone who came along for a great day at the Caledonian Hilton today. We had the launch of the Journey to Excellence Parts 4+5. (Frank Crawford reminded us that like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, it was a trilogy in five parts). We heard the Cabinet Secretary reaffirm her support for leadership and professional learning, and we heard about the new LTS resource Learning about Learning .
In the afternoon, we had an update from Con on CPDScotland, CPDFind and CPDReflect. We had a collaborative enquiry into the important issue of Professional Review and Development, and we finished with an excellent presentation by Ollie Bray on this year’s International Summer School (see his blog below)
Curious about the title of this blog? You had to be there!
Those of you who attended SELMAS last week, will have heard that the Cabinet Secretary committed the government to a second International Summer School next year. The dates will be 28th July to the 1st August – so get the dates in your diary now!
The feedback from this year’s conference suggested that delegates would welcome speakers from Europe to next year’s event. Have you heard a really interesting European speaker recently? Do you know of anyone who could challenge our thinking on an aspect of leadership? In an interesting way? In English?
If so – please let me know just as soon as you can. Good speakers get booked up very quickly!
We are always looking for guest ‘posters’ on the CPD Team blog. You may have a thought to share, an experience to recount, a trend you have spotted, a policy you would like implemented or even just a rant to get off your chest. In any case, we want to hear from you by leaving a comment on this blog or emailing me at cpdanswers@ltscotland.org.uk. It will get to me!
Thanks!
Like all good festivals, the Scottish Learning Festival has its very own fringe. I am looking forward to going to TeachMeet 07 which itself is an interesting model of CPD. Participants are encouraged to linger, loiter, contribute, chat, meet new people, or give a seven minute talk.
You can get more details or sign up for the event on the TeachMeet 07 wiki.
It is very pleasing to see providers taking advantage of the CPDFind system. As well as the 100+ providers already on the system, there are 30 more at various stages in the registration process including:
Holyrood Communications, Humanist Academy, IDEAS, Scottish Screen, Tailored Talks, Times Educational Supplement, Aberdeen City, AKSAA Ltd., Association for Scottish, Literacy Studies, Behaviour & Learning Management, British Red Cross, Foresty Commission Scotland, Infotech, Learning Curve, Lighthouse, Safety Media Ltd, Scottish Guidance Association, Wild2 Projects, Communico Consulting Ltd, Do Be Ltd, GIANT,Creative Therapies, GOTG Ltd, Education Excellence, Ideas in Partnership Ltd, RSPB Scotland, School of Emotional Literacy, Chrysalis Professional Development, Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and Woodland Trust Scotland.
There’s room for plenty more. If you know of CPD providers who should be on the system, please let us know about them or let them know about us!
Have you registered for the Scottish Learning Festival yet?
Those of you who attended sessions over the last two years with Ellen Moir and Janet Gless might be interested to note that Spotlight Speakers this year include Gary Bloom from the New Teacher Centre at the University College of Santa Cruz. Gary will talking about “Building Teaching Practice that is Collaborative, Public and Powerful through Professional Learning Communities”.
The Scottish Learning Festival takes place on 19 – 20 September at the SECC Glasgow. This year’s keynotes speakers are Michael Fullan, Stephen Happell, Mick Waters and Pasi Sahlberg and Cabinet Secretary, Fiona Hyslop. Although it isn’t necessary to register for keynotes in advance, it is important to register for spotlights and seminars, some of which are fully booked already.
If you haven’t registered and are interesting in coming along then please visit: www.scottishlearningfestival.org.uk
As the CPD team scour the various websites for CPDFind providers, we come across many ‘hidden gems’. Here’s a ‘Top Tip’ published by Stephen Heppell on the Support for New Teachers site at LTScotland.
“Take a digital camera. Ask one student per week to capture the 10 best things that happen in school that week. Twirl a projector around each evening to point at a window that can be seen from outside the school. Focus it onto the glass. Run a slide show all night of those images (© credit the student). This top tip is fab in the winter but a waste of time in the summer, but watch the crowds gather…”
If you haven’t visited the Support for New Teachers site, it’s worth a look.
I thought I would take advantage of the blog to get a debate going about CPD providers and Disclosure Scotland. The situation at the moment, as many of you know,is that the decision on the need for Disclosure Scotland checks on CPD providers depends entirely on the ‘purchaser’ of the CPD, ie the local authority CPD manager or the establishment CPD coordinator.
Through the A-Z of providers on CPDFind, the National CPD team are doing our best to make information available to help inform the decision. Steps taken so far:
Information on Disclosure Scotland is available in the CPD providers’ guide
Information about Disclosure Scotland status will now be a required field for all CPD providers.
However, it would be good to come to a consensus about what types of CPD need Disclosure Scotland checks. Do the following CPD providers need Disclosure Scotland checks, in your view?
team teaching with the classroom teacher
twilight sessions with staff only
consultancy involving visits to observe establishment practice
online CPD with staff only?
Do CPD providers have to undergo individual Disclosure checks for each local authority or would CPD managers be content that one check had taken place?
Your thoughts appreciated. Just leave a comment on this post or drop me a line.
Thanks
Fiona
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